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Alchemists Alcove is an Indie, Turn Based Roguelike Dungeon Crawler where you are a gritty mage pulling power out of the bits of your foes!
Found some poo?
Oh ya!
Combine it with some sulfur to make some fireballs!

Scored some salt?
Combine with some mystery goop to make Hot Ice!
So cold it burnsssss!

How about some raw meat + mystery mushrooms?
Poison Gas!
Fun!

Crafting For The Win?
Here?
Absolutely
As the game name and the above item combinations might hint at, Alchemists Alcove is a very crafting focused Dungeon Crawler.
As you make your way through the dungeon and its biomes made with Procedural Generation, you craft spells and tools using the remains of your foes.
It makes for a very gritty, very alchemist feeling dungeon crawler, very different from that of the typical fighter or dungeon delver, as you don’t get exp here.

That’s right: there is no apparent experience awarded here: just the ingredients the foes you were fighting dropped when they died.
This changes how you play: why fight your way through a room, when they don’t have anything you want?
Just go around them, or let the different factions fight it out if present, while you walk on by.

This makes for a very different dungeon crawling experience, where monsters are not just little bundles of exp, waiting for you to pop on by, put them down, and collect your goodies.
Here, you need to consider if what they are likely to drop is: something you want, something you have space for in your bag, and something that is worth the likely cost of engagement.
As I said, this is a very different kind of dungeon crawling experience.

A Game Born of Restriction:
Alchemists Alcove reminds me of Rift Wizard, with the very specific tile targets, and minimalist, yet very striking and clear art style.
Though here, we are absent the interesting shaped worlds, restricted to the 11x14 sized rooms, in a very specific dungeon complex, (likely created by a very specific wizard) and the spells are much, much weaker, and much, much more limited, as you are not some fallen archmage / wizard lord here, just an alchemist try to make their way in the world.
Thus, your inventory is limited here, but at least there are no apparent monster spawners to contend with!

I Like Alchemists Alcove, Because of How Different It Is:
At first, I did not like that I got no experience from my kills here.
It felt like I was being cheated of my full reward, but that was me letting my past experiences and expectations of dungeon crawlers color my perception.

Here, your character is an alchemist; a pure class alchemist.
They are not interested, at all, in testing themselves in combat, as they are not a fighter / barbarian / or other martial warrior type.
Nor are they interested in gauging and improving their spells, and targeting parameters, and reaction times to numerous threats under deadly pressure, like a battle mage or sorcerer would.
No.
They are simply here to collect more bits, mix em up to make more useful tools, and go on their way.
It is a very foreign mindset to me, as I favor the path of continual improvement, of always striving to do better, this very ‘do your job and move on’ path feels so mundane, so work-like, in its single-mindedness.
Normally, “Job Simulator” type games really put me off, as why would I ever what to simulate anything as soul-crushing as that mundane hell?!
And yet, introduced in a familiar, Dungeon Crawler setting, I find this very worker-man like alchemist, content to just do their thing, get their material goodies, and move on, interesting.
This is a lesson in how restriction drives gameplay.
Of what you can do, what you cannot do, and what you need to do, to do.

Note: This is an early look at the demo for Alchemists Alcove so any bugs or other oddness is not representative of the final product.
Still, Alchemists Alcove is an Indie, Turn Based Roguelike Dungeon Crawler where you are a gritty mage pulling power out of the bits of your foes!
Alchemists Alcove is well worth a watch, and a future wishlist when it makes it to Steam if you like interesting and innovative Dungeon Crawlers.
Watch?

https://fartfish.itch.io/alchemists-alcove-testing
#Roguelike #DungeonCrawler #Crafting